SUFFOLK COUNTY

Vol. 32, No 3 NEWSLETTER ISSN 1079-2198 Representing Nassau & Suffolk Counties Fall 2006

Diker Pavailion for Native Arts and Cultures Opens Celebrate New York State Archaeology Month October 5lh at the Manhattan branch of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. It will be Sunday, October 22 inaugurated by a major exhibit of objects from the collection with interactive media stations. October 21st 1:00 -4:OOPM will be a traditional dance social with the Thunderbird dancers and singers; October 28th will be dance Hoyt Farm Park performances and workshops honoring the Day of the New Hwy., Commack Dead, www.americanindian.si.edu or 211-514-3700.

'Experience archaeology Congressman Timothy Bishop Supports His Region's 'Practice Native technology Culture History Try Native cooking S.C.A.A. Museum Director Dr. Gaynell Stone recently *Watch stone-knapping presented 1s1 District Congressman Tim Bishop with a 'Take an ethnobotany walk copy of S.C.A.A.'s 700 page volume, The History & 'Enjoy the L.I. Native life museum Archaeology of the Montauk. It is of special interest to him 'Create craft objects after being an administrator and educator at Southampton College for many years. He is also supportive of S.C. Archaeological Assn. 631-929-08725 S.C.A.A.'s documentary film, The Sugar Connection: Holland, Barbados, Shelter Island, the story of Shelter Island's Sylvester Manor's role in 17th century global trade - another example of the unique history of Long Island's East End. OCTOBER IS STATE HUMANITIES MONTH Contact www.nyhumanities.org for information.

OCTOBER 7™ IS NATIONAL SOLAR TOUR DAY Over 100 L.I. solar houses may be visited 10-4. For sites and information, call 631-537-8282 or contactwww.RenewableEnergyLonglsland.org.

Dendrochronology Dating News Matches to the New England- Southern New York dendrochronology database have been obtained by Dan Miles and Michael Worthington of the Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory, England, for the Terry- Mulford house, Orient; The Old House in Cutchogue; and the Home Sweet Home and Gardiner Brown houses in East Hampton. Matches have not yet been made for Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island; the Halsey house, Southampton; and the Mulford Farm in East Hampton. The matches were made through sharing data with Dr. Ed Caveat - Dr. Phil Weigand, former Chair of the Stony Cook, senior scientist at the Columbia University Lamont- Brook University Anthropology Department, informs us Doherty Laboratory in New Jersey. The houses not yet that his article, "The Great Frontier on Long Island, NY: dated may be in the future with continued coring of Verrazzano and Early Epidemic Diseases," published in additional structures. The Oxford Lab staff are now this Newsletter, and reprinted in The Long Island Historical writing the reports; the dates and supporting data will in Journal as "How Advanced Were Long Island's Native the Winter 2007 Newsletter. Americans? A Challenge to the Traditional View," was edited so that confusions and inaccuracies occurred. He As is the case with many structures, time forces change says to use the SCAA Newsletter article for the complete whether due to necessity or fashion. The Prosper King story. Dr. Weigand's many years of excavation at a House has undergone modifications overtime. Additions largely unknown site in Jalisco, Western Mexico has such as a glass-enclosed front porch and dormerwindows resulted in two recent publications, "Current Issues updated the home's appearance sometime in the 1930s. Regarding Ancient Cultural Interplay of the American Owners in the 1970s were forced to demolish a Southwest Within Northwest Mexico" and "Turquoise: dilapidated summer kitchen and install an enclosed porch Formal Economic Interrelation- ships Between for storage space. Changes in sewers and water systems Mesoamerica and the North American Southwest. impacted the house over time as well as changes in Contact SCAA for source information. heating and cooking needs.

Planned restoration activities, which include significant repairs to the foundations, prompted the HBH&PS interest in the site's archaeological potential. Their concern for the house and any damage to intact archaeological deposits helped guide the excavation plan. Several areas adjacent to the house were selected to test for intact historic archaeological deposits and a total of six excavation units were explored. Shovel test pits explored outlying areas further from the structure.

On the north and east side of the house significant disturbance was identified. A late 20lh -century utility pipe trench followed the outline of the 1970s rear addition and Archaeological Evaluation of the Prosper King may connect to a similar pipe trench found along the east House Site, Hampton Bays. side of the house. Several other excavations encountered damage and past repair to the foundation of the original Standing on Main Street in Hampton Bays, the Prosper house. It was apparent that the foundation was in need of King House presents many unique opportunities. One of regular maintenance. the most engaging aspects of the house is the group of individuals dedicated to its preservation and restoration. The excavation of the Prosper King House site presented The Hampton Bays Historical & Preservation Society another unique opportunity for archaeology. Sometime (HBH&PS) is the steward of the house. Members and after 1935 and again beginning in the 1970s the house supporters of the society seek to not only to preserve was home to antique shops. Material from these shops Hampton Bays' history but also to engage and educate overlapped with what archaeologists would typically find local youth. The Prosper King House will become home associated with domestic deposits from the 18th and early to the HBH&PS, interpretive exhibits, and a repository 19th centuries. This depositional history presented a library. It is envisioned that the Prosper King House will challenge to archaeologists, which was resolved by stand against quickly disappearing parts of Hampton careful application of strict field methodology. The Bays' history, while providing learning opportunities for adherence to stratigraphic excavation retained residents and visitors alike. depositional context revealing temporal associations that allowed the deposits associated with the antique shops to As part of the effort to restore the house, the HBH&PS be separated from those associated with the historic use invited Hofstra University to evaluate the archaeological of the site. deposits associated with the property. It is of great significance that this investigation was not mandated by Regarding the latter, a thin undisturbed 19th- early 20th federal, state, or local regulations. Rather, it was century deposit was defined at the Prosper King House undertaken by the good will of the HBH&PS. This sort of site. Several units and test pits produced intact historic independent acknowledgment of the value of archaeology deposits and indicate opportunities for future work. It was to interpret historic sites on Long Island should be concluded that the planned restoration activities will do applauded, and hopefully often repeated! The little damage to the archaeological record at the Prosper investigation was undertaken by a team of Hofstra King House site. Moreover, with the information from the students and faculty, directed by Prof. Christopher excavations and planned archaeological monitoring, the Matthews of the Department of Anthropology. foundation repair will likely provide additional opportunities to collect materials that will help to better understand the Prosper King was a prominent member of the history of the Prosper King House thus far. Southampton community. King and his family likely lived in the area by 1832 if not earlier. Upon his death in 1851, A report of Hofstra's archaeological evaluation of the Prosper King left his house to his three sons, arranging for Prosper King House site co-authored by Jennifer Coplin his second wife and her children to continue living there and Christopher Matthews will be deposited with the after his death. The King family retained ownership of the HBH&PS later in 2006 Dr. Christoher Matthews house until 1967 and descendants still live in the region. A New View of the Matinecock: The Leeds Pond understanding, it is not entirely accurate. Since the area of (Nassau) Ceramic Collection (Part 2) Manhasset and Leeds Pond are part of the larger Excerpted from the Stephen Byrne M.S. thesis Township of North Hempstead it is important that town historians regard the Matinecocks, a tribe that sold much The Matinecocks of its land in North Hempstead to white settlers (Overton, Numerous sources of literature suggest that the Native 1966), as not part of the Algonquin nation at all. Research Americans who last inhabited the Greater Leeds Pond suggests that the Matinecocks were in fact part of the surround were likely the Matinecocks (Merriman, 1965), Delaware Tribe of Native Americans and are not sharing a large cultural ancestry with a branch of the Algonquin but are Algonquin speaking. sub-tribe, the Unalachtigo (Weeks, 1965), of the Delaware Native American tribe. Referring to the Matinecocks as Algonquin is deceiving. Algonquin or Algonkian better refers to a language group The Delawares, or in their own manner of speaking, the spoken by many Native Americans including the Lenni Lenape, meaning 'original' or 'pure people' (Brinton, Delawares. All Delaware dialects fall within the language 1969), were referred to as Delawares after the English group called Algonkian, a linguistic term used to classify arrived on the Atlantic seacoast. The name is derived from not only the Delawares but also the Powhatan tribes of the third Lord de la Warr, Sir Thomas West, who was Virginia; the Nanticoke, Conoy, and Choptank of appointed governor of the English colony at Jamestown, Maryland; the Shawnee; the Mahican of New York, and a Virginia. As time went on the Lenape people living on the number of New England Tribes (Weslager, 1972). The shores of the "de la Warr Bay" and alongside the banks of same language, with certain differences in dialect, was the river that emptied into it came to be called Delaware also spoken by the western tribes of the Blackfoot Indians (Weslager, 1972). confederacy; the Menominee; the Sauk and Fox; Arapaho and Cheyenne; the Miami; the Chippewa living in the The Delawares were dispersed into small communities, Great Lakes region; and by a number of other tribes, all of each located on a suitable waterway, but these groups which apparently had a common Algonkian ancestry were separate from and politically independent of each (Weslager, 1972). In extreme cases the difference other (Weslager, 1978). Ethnologists use the terms between one Algonkian dialect and another was probably Delaware and Lenni Lenape synonymously, and agree comparable to the difference between modem French and that the original homeland of these peoples should be Spanish (Brinton, 1969). delimited to the states of New Jersey and Delaware, that part of southeastern Pennsylvania lying between the The word Algonkian as applied to a family of Native Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, and the southeastern American languages was derived from a small tribal part of New York State (Weslager, 1972). division that resided in Canada north of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence rivers, known to the French as the It is important to restate that the native occupants of this Algonquin or Algonkin. The prominence of the tribe was area were not a closely- knit political group having a head not the result of its size, but of the emphasis given its sachem; in fact that concept is non-existent to the basic customs and language in the writings of early French structure of Delaware society. Each Delaware village was Jesuit missionaries (Weslager, 1972). an independent community having its own chieftains. Often the people living in villages along the same stream The Algonquin people were only one among many Native constituted what can best be described as a band, and the groups who spoke the same language and through the most influential village chief may have functioned as the influence of a Swiss student, Albert Gallatin, interested in nominal head of the band (Weslager, 1972). American Native tongues, their name became used arbitrarily as a generic for the language. When John Native people and the places or streams where they lived Wesley Powell of the United States Bureau of American were often known by the same name. For example, the Ethology published a classification and map of the Native Natives living on Sickoneysinck Creek at Lewes, languages of North America, he employed the same term. Delaware, were called Sickoneysinck Native Americans. Hence, the word Algonkian, a modification of Algonquin, The Matinecocks, who lived on the hilly north shore of has come to apply to a family of related dialects Long Island, were called so because their name means (Weslager, 1972). The term is not correctly used to "at the hilly land" (Hammond" 1992). classify Native cultures or artifacts, because there were substantial cultural differences among many of the tribes Matinecock Lineage who spoke dialects of the Algonkian language. Publications outlining the Matinecock lineage can be misleading or even contradictory. For example, Still, another ambiguity persists that the Matinecocks were Manhasset The First 300 Years, compiled as part of a Metoac (Ritchie, 1969). Metoac is a geographical rather Tri-Centennial Project of The Manhasset Community than political way of grouping Native tribes on Long Island. Liaison Committee sponsored by the Manhasset Chamber Metoac is a term contrived in recent times to group all of Commerce, suggests that the Matinecocks were part of tribes living on Long Island after European colonization. the Algonquin nation. While this designation may be The name Metoac refers to the name of the Montauks. acceptable in the broad sense of Native American Being cast under the Metoac banner by no way indicates the Matinecocks were anything but of Delaware descent. and Unami, have been assimilated into one of the other In fact, an early history of the Montauks reveals that the sub-tribes long ago. So, tracing their ancestry within the Montauks and other eastern Long Island tribes had greater Delaware culture may be impossible. If we take settlements on the east end of Long Island before the into account clan structure due to wars, disease, and "Lenni Lenapi (Delawares) had extended their influence shifts in the Native population after the arrival of about a third of the way out on the Island" (Ceci, 1979). Europeans, it is understandable why discerning Native American ancestry is a baffling issue. The Matinecocks will be present, therefore, in the Metoac record, because they last resided on Long Island. They Matinecocks on Long Island will also be referred to as being of Algonquin stock, The Matinecocks, who spoke an Algonkian dialect, were because linguistically they fall into the broader Algonquin a band of families who had their cultural origins in the classification. Both assertions are correct, however, one Delaware region. However, the Matinecock tribe only ever must be wary when assigning the correct lineage to the existed in name as Matinecocks on Long Island. Matinecocks because they are culturally of only one group, Delaware. The range of these people on Long Island is described in numerous sources. Overton (1963) states, "on the north Matinecock's Totem shore the Matinecocks owned all the land east of Newt The Matinecock's, like many other Native tribes, share a own as far as the western line of Smithtown. Settlements tribal ancestry that can be puzzling to trace. This is in were noted in Flushing, Glen Cove, Cold Spring Harbor, large part attributed to the Matinecocks being a Dosoris, Huntington and Northport as well as the place we non-literate society and their inter-tribal marriage practice now call Matinecock". Weeks (1965) describes the that encouraged the Matinecocks, as well as other Matinecocks as coming from the Delaware Water Gap Delaware tribes, to choose mates outside of their sub-tribe country. He states, like Overton, that on Long Island the (Weslager, 1972). Matinecocks were more numerous than most groups, having villages at Flushing, Cow Harbor, Glen Cove, Cold To better understand how the Matinecocks, and other Spring Harbor, Huntington and Asharocan. Delaware tribes, structured their lives we must look to their totem. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the Matinecock Population word totem is described as an object, animal or plant, It is difficult to say for certain how many Matinecocks had serving as the emblem of a family or clan and often as a been living on Long Island at any given time, or when they reminder of ancestry. The Matinecock's totem is the turkey came. It is still unclear how many Native People were on (Weeks, 1965). The "Turkey People," or Unalachtigo, are the whole of North America. Estimates for population one of three sub-tribes of the Delawares. The other two totals or relative regional densities vary with time or sub-tribes are the Minsi (wolf) and the Unami (turtle) individual's opinions. 'Safe' (meaning population numbers (Heckewelder, 1991). not too high or too low) estimates for North America, excluding Mexico and its Pre- Hispanic population, for the In referring to the totemic animals the common names year 1500 include a population size of just fewer than two were riot used, but metaphorical expressions, thus million (Krech III, 1999). Accepting the notion that most Unalachtigo was referred to as 'turkey1. The signs of the people lived in the Southwest, Northeast, California, and Delaware totemic animals were employed in their picture Southeast, and the fewest in the Great Basin, Arctic, and writing, painted on their houses or inscribed on rocks, to Plateau we can arrive at a population density by culture designate the respective sub-tribes. The Unalachtigo area based on the population estimate of just fewer than (Wnalachtko) means "people who live near the ocean" two million (1,894,000). According to Krech III, the and the tribe painted only one foot of their totemic bird in population density of the Northeast for the year 1500 was their designs (Brinton, 1969). 358,000 indigenous people. That equals 49 persons per one hundred square miles. The totem plays a role in marriage and consequently immigration and emigration of Delaware Native The Matinecock population on Long Island may never be Americans. The totems served to define marriage known. Some estimates hold that the population of Long relationships because when blood relationships were Island before the European colonization may be only in unknown, some method had to be found for a man to the area of six to seven thousand (Weeks, 1965). determine whether he was related to a woman he However, this total may be low. The Matinecock selected as his mate. If they both were descended from communities were located mainly on the bays and inlets the same totemic animal, thus owing allegiance to the of the north shore. These communities usually contained same totem, it was assumed that they were related and it 20 to 30 family groups, as observed by European was taboo for them to marry (Weslager, 1972). colonists (Hammond, 1992). Furthermore, according to Delaware tradition, children followed their mother's lineage (Weslager, 1972). Families George Weeks states that the Matinecocks had villages at also bore female names and this was all probably due to seven prominent locations, Flushing, Cow Harbor, Glen some unexplained matriarchal system (Brinton, 1969). Cove, Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, and Ashrocan. If With these cultural practices it is conceivable that true we conclude that there were 25 family groups in the Unalachtigo, and subsequently the members of the Minsi typical Long Island Native American village, as calculated by Hammond, then 25 family groups multiplied by 4, a Info: [email protected]. 203-775-3343. projected number of members in the average Native American family group, would equal 1 00 people living in Journals of the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Assn., each village. 100 people per village multiplied by 7 back issues #17-21 available on PDF format CD @ $6. villages would equal 700 Matinecock Native Americans. each + $5. shipping. View cover and contents at http://esaf-archeoloqv.org/aenabk.html. ESAF, P.O. This rudimentary population estimate is undoubtedly low, Box 386, Bethlehem, CT 06751-0386. because we only count the seven village-size Matinecock settlements. However, Weeks lists seventeen principal Society for Historical Archaeology/Underwater native American communities on Long Island. The point Archaeology 40th Anniversary - Colonial Williamsburg, is that 17 communities, including the Matinecocks, VA. January 10-14. 2007. Info: multiplied by 700 Native Americans equals about 12,000 people on Long Island. This is almost double the Weeks N.Y. Archaeological Council &N.Y.S. Archaeological population estimate. ...fo be continued Assn. will collaborate on an educational project about NAGPRA (Native American Grave Preservation & Eastern Suffolk BOCES Summer Archaeology Field Restoration Act), what it covers and what it does not, in a School was held again the last two weeks of July at pamphlet. NYAC has distributed it Policy on treatment of Blydenburgh County Park. The students participated in all Human Remains and Grave Goods for comment. aspects of archaeology, as well as a field trip to the Copies of the Policy are available on the ACHP website. Smithtown Cemetery, Smithtown Historical Society, and Smithtown Library to 'dig' in the archives and learn more National Association of Tribal Historic Preserva- about the Blydenburghs and Smiths whose artifacts they tion Officers has posted information and guidelines for are unearthing. consulting with Native groups on their website at http://nathpo.org.

New and Noteworthy

The New York State Blueway Underwater Trail has been established by the N.Y. Department of State to provide access to shipwrecks for divers and to inform SCUBA enthusiasts as well as non-divers about the Empire State's vast maritime heritage.

The Trail is a pilot project for 6 waterways and 6 corresponding municipalities: the lead group is the Village Resources of Lake George's Submerged Heritage Preserve; Atlantic Ocean Coastal Waters/Village of Freeport; Lake Long Island Society/AIA Archaeology Lectures Champlain/City of Plattsburg; Lake Erie/City of Dunkirk; all at Breslin Hall, Hofstra University Lake Ontario/City of Oswego; Seneca Lake/City of October 22 - "From Vineyards to the Slave Trade: Geneva. Within two years each is expected to have one 4,000 Years at Gebel Ghuita, Egypt" or two new shipwreck preserves with exhibits, brochures, Dr. John C. Darnell, Yale University websites, etc. Prior to any shipwreck being opened to November 19 - "Recent Research "on the Roman diver visitation, it will be archaeoiogically investigated. Presence in Southern Portugal (Algarve)" Dr. Caterina Viegas, University of Lisbon The Lake George Preserve will have a 'facelift' of its December 3 - "The Role of Nuclear Physics in signage and trails. Two of its wrecks, "the Sunken Fleet Tracing the Origin of Ancient Pottery" of 1758" and "Land Tortoise - a 1758 Floating Gun Dr. Joseph Yellin, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem Battery" are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Land Tortoise was designated a National Meetings Historic Landmark in 1998. The new Lake George Visitor Center will have a panel and video exhibit about the Trail Researching New York 2006: Perspectives on Empire and will be a gateway to encourage tourism. State History-November 16 & 17, U. of Albany, focusing on the history of African Americans in NYS. NYS Ed. Where in this new thrust is East Hampton with its Dept., CEC Suite 9C49, Albany, NY 12230. Revolutionary War British ship, "The Culloden" and many other wrecks? Ditto the whole South Shore of Long Council on North Eastern Archaeology Conference Island? 40th Anniversary - October 20 - 22, Tarrytown. NY. Info: [email protected] First Lady of the New World: Arlington Springs Woman was discovered in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island off Eastern States Archaeological Federation Meeting California, accidentally while a road was being bulldozed November 8-12, Fitchburq. MA; numerous tours. by Phil Orr, Curator of anthropology and paleontology of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. A team of Publications of the Suffolk County Archaeological eminent anthropologists, geologist, geographers, and Association oceanographers were enlisted to excavate the bones and possible hearth stains nearby. Readings in Long Island Archaeology & Ethnohistory All volumes are $40. + $5. Shipping, except Vol. Ill, 2d Carbon dating was new then, but occupational layers ed., which is $75. + $8. Shipping, both plus 8.50% sales above the bones were dated to 8000 BC (10,000 years tax in N.Y. State and for individuals. Vols. I and VI are out ago). Charcoal bits about 1/3 of a meter from the bones, of print; a few copies of Vol. IV remain. which were 11.5m. below the surface, were determined to be 10,000+ 200 RCYBP uncalibrated. I Early Paper in Long Island Archaeology I1 The Coastal Archaeology Reader Orr removed the femora bones in a large block of earth, III History & Archaeology of the Montauk, 2d ed. encased in plaster for protection, which was stored in the IV Languages & Lore of the Long Island Indians Santa Barbara Museum for the next 30 years as Arlington V The Second Coastal Archaeology Reader Springs Man. 1995 radiocarbon dating of a mouse bone VI The Shinnecock Indians: A Culture History near the femora resulted in a date of 10,960 + 80 RCYBP. VII The Historical Archaeology of L.I.: Part 1 - The Sites Pygmy mammoths appear to have co-existed with VIII The Native Forts of L.I. Sound (in press). humans on the island. 1999 examination and CAT scan measurements of the femora fall within the female range Student Series (Including shipping) for Channel Islands skeletons - thus Arlington Springs Booklet/A Way of Life: Prehistoric Natives of LI. $7. Woman. 2001 chrono-stratigraphy studies bracket the Study Pictures: Coastal Native Americans 10. skeleton's age between 11,200 and 11,580 RCYBP, or Wall Chart:Native Technology (26x39"-3 colors) 15. 13,200 to 13,500 Calibrated years before the present, Map: Native Long Island (26x39"-3 colors) 15. making her the oldest known woman in the New World.

SCAA's 19th Century Festival at Blydenburgh Co. Park MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Membership in SCAA includes 3 Newsletters per year and a 10% On June 10th traditional 19th century music filled the air as reduction in workshop and publication costs. All contributions are tax well as the smell of savory 19th century cooking. The 30th deductible. Virginia Infantry Co. B set up camp and drilled and shot Student (to 18) $10. Individual $20. Family 30. Sustaining 50. volleys. Visitors could blacksmith, do traditional carpentry, Contributing 100. Patron 100. make Dutch apple pancakes on the wood cook stove, Life Member 400. churn butter, grind grain into flour, make applesauce, press apples into cider, and more. They could also learn Date:.. about Colonial dyeing and participate in textile production - carding, spinning, and weaving. Name:.

Most of these activities are experienced by the 10-12,000 Address:. students a year who participate in SCAA's Native Life & Archaeology at Hoyt Farm Park and Colonial Life & City/State/Zip:.. Technology programs at Blydenburgh County Park, as

well as in the in-school and library workshops. Phone No. ...

Publications Willing to volunteer? .... The Booklover's Paradise in Bellmore has over 300 rare Occupation: . and used books that deal with Long Island history. Contact them at [email protected]. Send check to: Suffolk County Archaeological Association, P.O. Box 1542, Stony Brook, NY 11790-Tel: 631-929-8725 New archaeology book publisher, the Left Coast Press, offers in November: Brian Fagan, Writing Archaeology: Programs of the S.C Archaeological Association are funded in part by Telling Stories About the Past. Much more to come. public monies from the New York State Council on the Arts - Contact at 925-935-3380. Decentralization, the Suffolk County Office of Cultural Affairs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and County and State Legislators. Phytoliths: A Comprehensive Guide for Archaeologists and Paleoecologists, Dolores R. Piperno, Altamira Press (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group), 2006. $59.95 in paperback. CHAEOLOGYJS EDUCATION